Chapter Nineteen

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Chapter Nineteen

We moved under cover of darkness.

The desert turned colder, shadows stretching long across the sands as we pushed forward, guided only by the stars and Liam’s gut instinct.

“We’ll rest at dawn,” he said, his voice rough but steady. “One hour max. Then we head north.”

“North to what?” I asked, shivering despite the heat trapped in my clothes. “More enemies? Another dead end?”

He looked at me, eyes unreadable in the moonlight. “To someone I trust.”

That was saying something. Liam didn’t trust easily.

We passed through the jagged ridges until we reached a dry riverbed, and he finally signaled for a stop. I dropped to the ground, muscles aching, lungs burning.

Liam knelt beside me, pulling a small foil packet from his vest and tossing it over. “Here. Energy gel. Tastes like death, but it’ll keep you standing.”

“Can’t wait,” I muttered, peeling it open. “Dinner of champions.”

He chuckled quietly, then went still, head cocked.

“What is it?” I whispered, scanning the silent shadows.

“Nothing… just quiet. Too quiet.”

I swallowed. “You think they’re following us?”

“They always are.”

We didn’t sleep. Just sat in silence, watching the stars die behind the rising sun.

By mid-morning, the ridge gave way to a cluster of crumbled buildings—ruins of an old military testing site, long forgotten by the world. Liam led me through a half-collapsed warehouse, down a rusted stairwell that groaned under our weight.

At the bottom, a steel door waited. He knocked twice, paused, then knocked once more.

A second passed.

Then came the sound of grinding locks.

The door creaked open, revealing a woman with silver-blonde hair tied in a severe braid. Her face was lined with both age and defiance.

She raised a brow. “Liam Sinclair. Back from the grave again?”

“Nice to see you too, Freya.”

Her eyes flicked to me. “And the girl?”

“She’s the key,” he said.

Freya stepped aside. “Then come in. Before someone decides to make a mess of my doorstep.”

The space beyond was a bunker—dimly lit, lined with screens, weapon caches, and a humming server rack in the corner. I counted three more people, all armed, all staring like I’d just walked in with a bomb strapped to my chest.

Maybe I had.

Freya gestured to a battered metal table. “Sit. Talk. Fast.”

Liam nodded. “Scarlett’s after her. She has the final key to the Origin Protocol. We uploaded a copy to a secure node, but they’re closing in.”

Freya’s jaw clenched. “And you brought her here?”

“She has nowhere else to go.”

I stood. “I can speak for myself, thanks.”

Freya’s gaze slid to me, cool and appraising. “Then speak.”

“My mother designed the code,” I said. “She embedded it in me—literally. Neural sequencing. Scarlett killed her to cover it up. Now she wants to finish the job.”

Freya didn’t flinch, but the air around her changed.

“She was your mother?” Her voice dropped. “Clara Ventris?”

I nodded.

Freya exhaled a sharp breath. “She saved my life once. And vanished without a trace.”

“She knew the Alliance would use her work for control, not peace,” Liam said. “That’s why she embedded the fail-safe in Isla.”

Freya turned to me. “So you’re the ticking time bomb.”

“Feels like it,” I muttered.

She motioned to one of her team. “Run a scan. Let’s confirm what we’re working with.”

They ushered me to a medical chair, cold metal biting through my clothes. A scanner hovered over my head, humming softly as it mapped the neural patterns.

Freya watched the screen. Her eyes widened.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” she said softly. “The code’s not just embedded—it’s alive. Self-evolving. Like it’s waiting for something.”

“Waiting for what?” I asked, suddenly cold.

Freya met my gaze. “A command. A trigger.”

“What kind of trigger?”

“One only you can give.”

I stood, heart pounding. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“You will,” she said. “When the time comes.”

Before I could argue, the alarms blared.

“Motion detectors,” one of Freya’s men barked. “Six contacts. Closing fast.”

Liam moved instantly. “They found us.”

Freya snapped into action. “Lock it down. Isla, with me.”

We followed her to a reinforced comms room. The monitors showed six black SUVs surrounding the site.

“Scarlett’s dogs,” Freya muttered. “She moves faster than I expected.”

I turned to Liam. “We can’t outrun them this time.”

He looked at the servers. “Then we don’t. We send the rest of the data.”

Freya’s fingers flew across the console. “I’ll open a port to the Ark—deep web bunker. Once the full Origin file’s uploaded, even Scarlett can’t kill it.”

Liam nodded. “Do it.”

She inserted a drive and began the transfer. Seconds ticked away like hours.

The ground trembled.

“They’ve breached the outer perimeter!” someone yelled.

Freya handed me a device. “This is a neural sync baton. If they get through, jam it against your temple. It’ll activate your embedded key. But only if there's no other option. Understand?”

I nodded, terrified.

The power flickered. Explosions rocked the walls.

Liam took my hand. “Stay behind me. No matter what.”

Then the doors blew open.

Black-clad soldiers poured in. Liam moved like a storm—precise, brutal, unrelenting. Freya’s team fought back, gunfire tearing through the tight corridors.

I ducked low, watching the servers continue to pulse as the upload reached 92%, 93%...

A soldier lunged for the console.

I grabbed a steel rod from the wall and swung. Hard.

He dropped, unconscious.

98%.

99%.

Transfer Complete.

I hit the encrypt key, just as Liam dragged me behind cover.

Freya tossed a smoke canister, filling the room with choking fog.

“We move!” she shouted. “Out the escape hatch!”

We ran. Through winding tunnels, through dust and heat and fire.

We burst into the open just as the bunker behind us erupted in flames.

I looked back, breath ragged. “Is it done?”

Freya nodded. “The world’s about to learn the truth. And Scarlett… she just lost her leash.”

Liam turned to me, blood on his sleeve but a fire in his eyes.

“You’re not running anymore,” he said. “You’re leading.”